Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-09-09
FRIDAY. SEPTEMBER 9, 1887.
Postal Regulations.

We have for years been postal re-
former The late J. II. ST. ANDREW,
Of the Farmvillc JoUHQl, gave us the
credit of the law making the postage on
newspapers, &C., payable by the pound
and at the Office OF deposit. We were
one of its earliest advocates, but HORACE
GREELEY was its originator, we think.
We have "poked fun" at the postal
authorities in Washington year after
year ON account of some of their alb
surd regulations as, for example, that
a letter addressed to Kanawha Court
house must not be sent TO the post
Office named Charleston, although both
these names are known to belong to
the same place, but must be sent to the
dead-letter Office i'll Washington. The
same authorities employ experts in
reading manuscript to ascertain whe-
Their letters illogibly directed should be
forwarded, and wisely require let
ter addressed TO "ridgemuD, fergin-
n.y." to be sent to this city.
In word, if a letter is so badly
directed that i requires the services of
an expert TO decipher the address, the
postal authorities viii seeto it that that
letter shall reach its destination, where
as if letter be addressed TO Walkers
Church instead Of to Hixburg, it will
be forwarded to the dead.letter Office,
Notwithstanding that every man in the
post. office service may know that Wal
ker's Church and Hixburg are one and
the same place.
We have long contemplated an attack
upon theenemy' S entertainments, along
the line followed IN the following para
graph of Brother LAvFERTY's. He
says
"A postal is not mailable if you
paste newspaper clipping on 1t. If
You stick the clipping to a common
card and put n One-cent stamp on 1t
there is no objection To forwarding it
through the mails Why should such
a regulation exist against gluing
printed paragraph to @ postal ? There
is no sense III it. There must be dun
delhead in Washington IL charge OF
the 'Iules and regulations depart
ment. Mr.. Cleveland may keep the
'rascals in, but we pray HIM to expe-
dite the fools through back door"
We have cudgellcd our brains il try
ing to imagine The raison d'ttre OF that
regulation and have come TO the con-
clusion that there cannot be any other
reason assigned than the fact that to
paste little piece of paper upon a
postal-card would be to add to its
weight. The Government sends news
papers from Richmond to San Fran
cisco for two dollars hundred pounds.
Postal cards, even if one side of each
of them were covered wi,h slip pasted
upon it, would pay the Government
more than one hundred dollars FOR "A
hundred pounds OF them. Yes, eleven
postal-cards weigh an ounce, and one
hundred and seyenty-slx pound. 80
the Government charges 81. rs pound
for passing them through the mails.
Two cents a pound for papers. One
dollar and seventy-six cents q pound
for postal-cards To paste newspaper
cuttings upon them would not add one
third to their weight.
Now as to writing on the margins of
newspapers. People do not do it to
save two cents, nor to cheat the Gov
ernment. They DO it because they
haven't time to write formal letter,
or because they have nothing out of
which to "make up" such letter.
Why not let them pay two cents for
each newspaper whose margin they
thus write upon and be done with it !?
The public would be pleased, the Gov
eminent would profit, and nobody
would be damaged in any respect.